TALLADEGA — Testimony in the Ginger Paris arbitration hearing concluded Thursday evening.Arbitrator Charlotte Green will make her ruling after the hearing’s transcripts are finished and lawyers for the two sides file their briefs. The ruling will not be made for at least a few weeks and possibly longer.
Paris is appealing her firing by the Talladega City Board of Education on Jan. 24. She served as principal of R.L. Young Elementary School.
The second day of testimony began with Dr. Frank Buck, School System Curriculum and Special Education supervisor. Buck took over conducting the Professional Education Personnel Evaluation Program to evaluate teachers when Paris was placed on administrative leave during the School System’s winter break.
Buck testified that Paris had not properly completed the forms by not recording how she scored the teachers, not properly dating the forms and by not filling out the post-observation conference form for one teacher. He looked at a sample of PEPE forms from previous years and said they also had not been dated correctly or had a scoring sheet filled out.
Board attorney Mark Rasco pointed out some of the forms had different handwriting and appeared Paris had not been the one to fill them out, to which Buck agreed.
Paris’ attorney, Brad Proctor, asked if Paris had been filling out these forms the same way for years, why had she not been asked to correct it.
Buck said Paris did not have to file the entire report to the superintendent, only the summary page, which was always correct.
Proctor asked whose job it was to check the PEPE forms. Buck said ultimately it would be the superintendent’s job.
Buck also took notes at a meeting between Superintendent Dr. Joanne Horton and Paris, which was submitted into evidence. In the meeting Horton allegedly offered a chance for Paris to resign and the board would not prosecute her for any possible wrongdoings, which Paris did not take.
Part of the evidence Horton presented to Paris in that meeting included $1,200 of missing book fair money for which a receipt was later found.
When Horton testified, she told Proctor the missing $1,200 was the most important piece of information she had when asking Paris to resign.
Proctor then asked at the time of that meeting, did Horton have any evidence that Paris took money besides what PTO members had testified they suspected Paris had taken at the October 2007 Fall Festival. Horton answered no.
Later under Rasco’s questioning, Horton said it was a pattern of events including the PTO accusations and audit findings that warranted Paris’ dismissal even with the $1,200 receipt being found.
Proctor also asked if there was a plan by School System administrators to make Pattie Thomas principal of R.L. Young since her only job at the time as school improvement specialist would be over when Talladega High School met its Adequate Yearly Progress goal. Horton denied this assertion.
Thomas currently serves as R.L. Young interim principal and school improvement specialist.
Former Schools Superintendent Lee Messer testified he received more than the average number of complaints from parents about Paris when he was superintendent. He said teachers graded Paris lower on their evaluations of her than most principals who have been a principal for more than two or three years.
Proctor asked if he could name any of the people who complained and Messer said he could not remember anyone specifically. Messer also said students were leaving at R.L. Young because of unhappiness with Paris, but Proctor pointed out that enrollment had to be cut off in July 2006.
Messer said parents were upset but many stuck with R.L. Young.
Paris was the only witness called by Proctor. She testified her son helped her set up a laptop computer bought with school funds, which is why her son’s name appeared on the log-in screen.
She said she planned to use the laptop to fill out PEPE forms online, which is why she did not use it in between the time she bought it with school funds in August and when Horton and the auditor, Theresa Lackey, confiscated it in November.
She also refuted Horton’s and Lackey’s testimony that she did not have the laptop with her when they first asked about it. Horton and Lackey said they had to return to the school at a later date to get the laptop. Paris said she provided the laptop the first time they asked for it.
Paris said she misunderstood what was being asked for when Horton and Lackey asked her to produce a camcorder bought with school funds. She told them one of her teachers had it because she thought they had asked for a Canon digital camera.
The camcorder contained footage of Paris’ daughter playing basketball at a private school game. Paris said the tape was in the camcorder because she was trying to convert the tape to DVD format and there was a way to do that with that particular camcorder. Paris said she did record the game with the camcorder.
A receipt for three T-shirts she bought one of her children and two relatives on a trip to a conference in Seattle was included on her reimbursement form by mistake, according to Paris. It was not noticed until spotted by the auditing firm though it had been submitted and approved at the central office.
Other items bought on trips questioned by the audit included picture frames, guide books and photo prints. They were all used for the school, according to Paris.
Rasco asked Paris why the school’s general fund was operating in the negative for several months before she was placed on administrative leave.
Paris said she had a limited understanding of the budget because R.L. Young’s secretary/bookkeeper handled most of the financial issues, and she thinks she could use more training in that area. Additionally, she said no administrator ever questioned her about the school’s finances operating in the red.
Paris said she had thought the PTO members who testified in Wednesday’s proceedings were honest until they said they suspected her of stealing Fall Festival money.
She said she could only remember PTO president Alicia Holbrook asking her about the account balance of the PTO funds once.
Holbrook testified she asked Paris and the school’s secretary/bookkeeper numerous times about what the balance of the PTO funds was and could not get an answer.
Paris said she took Holbrook over to the school’s secretary/bookkeeper to get her that information.
